On February 24 at a regular session the RA National Assembly voted down the draft law on introducing an amendment to the RA Law “On Television and Radio”. The draft on abolishing the moratorium on broadcast licensing competitions was initiated by deputies from “Heritage” faction Anahit Bakhshian and Armen Martirosian. As it has been reported, on September 10, 2008 the parliament passed the amendment to Point 14 of Article 59 of the RA Law “On Television and Radio”, suspending the broadcast licensing competitions for two years, till July 20, 2010 (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 5-11, 2008). This raised and continues raising serious concerns of the Armenian journalistic community and international organizations. Particularly, they claim that the introduction of the moratorium runs counter the ruling of European Court of Human Rights of June 17, 2008 on the suit of “A1+” TV company, depriving the latter to take part in a new competition.
Meanwhile, at the session of February 24 the majority of deputies voted against the abolition of the amendment to Broadcast Law (70 – con, 24 – pro and 3 – abstention).
